Kolkata: Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh, who allegedly attempted suicide in jail on Friday told a court that the person who once "staged" a hanging attempt was now lecturing on the sins of suicide, in an oblique reference to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee without naming her.
"Alipur Gopalnagar-e je golay dori dewar natok korechilen tar kach theke shikhbo atmahatya mahapap? (do I have to be lectured on the sins of suicide from the person who had staged a hanging attempt at Alipur Gopalnagar?" Ghosh told the court of sessions judge at Bankshall court Arvind Mishra during his production in the multi-crore Saradha scam case.
Banerjee, who was in Congress then, had in the mid-1990s allegedly threatened to commit suicide if tainted leaders were given nomination by the party leadership.
Following Ghosh's alleged suicide bid in the early hours of November 14, Banerjee in a statement in the Assembly said that committing suicide is a crime in the eyes of law.
"We want to see everybody keeping well," she had said.
Ghosh's counsel Ayan Chakraborty submitted that some notebooks had gone missing when he was brought back from hospital where he was treated for allegedly having taken sleeping pills to commit suicide.
It was also claimed that a different notebook with some torn pages was given to him instead.
Ghosh claimed that he has been incarcerated in a cell meant for death row convicts with two sets of iron bars at the gate and that he was confined there almost for 24 hours daily after he was brought back to Presidency Correctional Home from the state-run SSKM hospital on November 17.
The counsel requested the court to appoint an officer to visit the jail and give him a report on his condition.
Saradha boss Sudipta Sen and his associate Debjani Mukherjee were also produced before the court.
The judge extended the judicial remand of Ghosh, Sen and Mukherjee till November 27 on a prayer by CBI.
